


an incredibly awkward situation

by sundazed



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Hate to Love, M/M, Pining, mentions of doten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22042036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sundazed/pseuds/sundazed
Summary: “You like Renjun,” Ten says plainly as if he’d known all along.Donghyuck opens his mouth to counter him, but there really was no point in attempting concealment; Ten already sees right through him.“Well,” Ten clasps a terrifyingly steady hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder. “It’s about damn time.”
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 18
Kudos: 255





	an incredibly awkward situation

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve wanted to write renhyuck for the longest time, so here’s my attempt at that before the year ends! please be gentle.
> 
> (inspired by bombadil’s song ‘a question’)

In Donghyuck’s defense, coming here wasn’t his idea.

It took a lot of coaxing from Jeno and the extra ( _very_ _literal, very painful_ ) kick from Jaemin for him to drag himself out of bed, get dressed, and throw himself into uncharted territory.

Thankfully, the façade Jaemin and Jeno had helped him build easily gets him through reception and into the main exhibit. Following the brochure he’d been given at the entrance, Donghyuck finally spots Renjun and for a brief moment, the familiarity helps him forget about how small he feels surrounded by intimidating adults engaged in intimidating conversations. Renjun doesn’t return his gaze, but knowing that he’s merely a few meters away precludes Donghyuck from bolting out of the atrium. 

Donghyuck overhears one of the patrons gush to his companion as they admire Renjun’s work from afar. Although a part of him swells with pride for his friend, that’s all it takes for the confidence he’d stacked the entire subway ride over to be plowed down like a house of cards. 

So when a glass of champagne is offered to him by one of the waiters who must’ve sensed his growing anxiousness, he takes it with a small smile and resigns to a far corner without losing Renjun from his line of sight. 

Donghyuck waits and stares Renjun down till he’s downed the last of his champagne, before looking away and pretending to inspect the other works plastered on the ivory walls. 

But the juxtaposition of Renjun’s tiny frame beside his massive painting is quite the view, and Donghyuck isn’t going to rid himself of the little pleasures in life. His attention naturally gravitates back to Renjun, hand wrapped delicately around the neck of his champagne glass and eyes ceaselessly reaching out to say hello as he effortlessly dips in and out of conversation with anyone who gives his work at least a glimmer of consideration. 

It’s heart-melting. Donghyuck is fucked.

After years of being at each other’s throats, Donghyuck has yet to learn how to admit it aloud, but this is high on the list of things he admires about Renjun. Despite his innate talent in the arts and extensive knowledge of almost everything and anything, there’s never an air of arrogance with him. This isn’t to say Renjun doesn’t recognize the talent and potential he possesses—because boy, Donghyuck _knows_ he does—Renjun simply chooses not to be a conceited dick about it. 

Just then, Renjun smiles at the guy whom Donghyuck heard gushing earlier, and Donghyuck would also never admit this aloud, but his heart jumps a little at his toothy display. He snaps a pic after making sure the flash is off (he’s learned from the last time he snuck a photo of Renjun and Jaemin caught him red handed, thus his incessant whining to make Donghyuck confess), and sends it to Jaemin as proof that he isn’t chicken shit. 

That’s all. 

Donghyuck is definitely _not_ going to stare at Renjun’s crinkly eyes and pearly whites and think about how unfair it is to make someone that unbelievably cute when he gets home tonight, no sir. 

—

_“It’s easy, you butthead,” Jaemin cries out in frustration. “You go in there, tell him you like his art, ask him out for dinner, and be sincere. No backhanded insults”—Jaemin side-eyes Jeno—“_ or _cheesy pick up lines.”_

_“Okay, maybe one pick up line,” Jeno haggles. Ignoring the daggers Jaemin sends him, Jeno squeezes Donghyuck’s shoulders. “But see, just five things. You can do it.”_

_“Will the two of you ever stop acting like my parents?”_

_As expected, Jeno shakes his head no in the same heartbeat Jaemin sing-songs, “Never in a million years.”_

—

Donghyuck feels like a walking cliché for harboring a crush on his childhood rival but it’s the cold, hard truth. Donghyuck has known Renjun since preschool, and for the longest time, he thought he’d live forever irked by Huang Renjun’s guts — even though he doesn’t particularly remember how it started and why he felt that in the first place. 

After many nights of pondering, however, Donghyuck concludes that the problem with them is that they both have firecracker personalities that resounds with a thunderous bang upon contact. What they both overlooked, either intentionally or unconsciously, is how synergistic they actually are. It should have been clear the moment they were chosen as co-presidents, but they were too busy sizing each other up to realize how they’ve always been riding the same wavelength. 

In any case, there’s a fine, gossamer thin line between hate and infatuation and it took one dreary afternoon, a single grand piano in the university’s deserted auditorium, and a song they’d spontaneously written together for Donghyuck to consider crossing it. 

And it took one sincere smile and Renjun’s honey-like voice for Donghyuck to completely flip. That’s how Renjun, that jackass, bludgeoned his way into Donghyuck’s heart without even bothering to take his shoes off on his way in. 

—

_“I’m just saying,” Jaemin begins, sweeping their immediate vicinity with his eyes as if what he’s about to spill is some state secret. “You’re going to spend a_ lot _of time together. And I can only see this going two ways.”_

_“How?”_

_“Either you end up slicing each other’s throats or…”_

_Donghyuck takes a sip of his drink in favor of giving Jaemin his full attention. “Or what?”_

_“Or, I don’t know, trying to get in each other’s pants.”_

_At that, Donghyuck almost chokes on his caramel frappuccino._

_“Fuck, Jaemin”—wheeze—“watch your mouth. Shit. Never. Never in a million years. Not even if you paid me a million bucks.”_

—

  
  


A year later, here Donghyuck was, definitely not a millionaire and definitely infatuated with the boy whose entire being seems to sparkle from the sunlight streaming in from the glass ceiling. 

Fuck Jaemin. This is all his fault for insidiously putting _that_ image in Donghyuck’s mind. 

In an attempt to get out of his head, Donghyuck rummages through his coat’s pocket—yes, he’s wearing his really nice formal coat, _what about it_ —for the bag of M&M’s Jeno had given him before leaving the apartment. _For the jitters,_ Jeno had said. 

After discreetly opening it, he promptly pops three in his mouth, all the primary colors, and reverts back to pretending to be in awe of the other art in the room. 

_Renjun, I like you._

God. The thought makes Donghyuck want to barf. Not from disgust, but from fear of rejection. He doesn’t know which would be worse. Arms crossed and sweat forming on his forehead, Donghyuck struggles to fixate his eyes on anything but Renjun. Renjun probably hasn’t even spotted him yet. Maybe Donghyuck should just—

“There you are.” 

“Hyung,” Donghyuck stumbles back as Ten, Renjun’s _very_ inquisitive brother who’s _supposed_ to be somewhere along the coast of Thailand and not _here_ in Seoul looking like he’s a predator ready to jump at his prey, approaches him. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be on a cruise?” 

“Had to cut it short. I was bored out of my mind, I missed bickering with Doyoung, and do you know what a boat full of white, senile people smells like?” 

“No…” 

“Imagine mapo tofu and despair rubbed down with eucalyptus oil.” Ten downs his glass in one go to dramatically prove his point and gestures for a waiter to hand both him and Donghyuck another. In need of liquid courage, Donghyuck happily takes it. “You, what are you doing _here_?”

“What? I’m here to say my congratulations.” 

Ten, as is the basic principle of having siblings that is common in all societies and cultures, is an Olympic medalist at making Renjun’s life difficult, and by extension, Donghyuck’s, so he’s not surprised when Ten raises his eyebrow at him. “From all the way _here_?” 

“He’s still busy.” 

Ten narrows his eyes at him, but doesn’t press further. _Fishy_. Instead, he opts for, “You remember how Doyoung and I got together?” 

Donghyuck doesn’t understand why Ten’s suddenly becoming sentimental but he nods as though he’s interested, all while the same thought zooms back and forth in his brain: _run, run, run._

“Well, he and I were stupendous debaters, except we always competed opposite each other and hated the other with a burning passion.” 

“Yeah, hyung, I remember every hair-raising detail thanks to your unsolicited, vivid retelling, and my brilliant memory. I don’t think I need to hear it one more—“ 

“Oh, so you remember how all that rage eventually transformed into hot makeout sessions in his car?” 

“Oh my god, why are we having this conversation.” 

Donghyuck makes a move to leave, but Ten is quick to pull him back. Donghyuck pulls the most disgusted face he could muster, so that the message is clear, _I do not care about the horrendous things that happen in my brother’s car,_ but Ten is undeterred, wiggling his eyebrows at Donghyuck. Which, honestly, scares Donghyuck more than getting another kick on the shin from Jaemin. 

“Jaemin asked me to find you and make sure you weren’t bailing.” 

“How did he know that you’re…” Donghyuck doesn’t get to finish the question because an answer immediately comes in addition to a pinch to his side. 

“That’s what happens when you block me on Instagram. This is also why Jaemin’s my favorite out of all you turds. Jeno is a close second.” Donghyuck rolls his eyes at this, earning him another pinch. Donghyuck rubs the spot and does the mature thing of sticking out his tongue at Ten. Ten likes him the most. He knows it. 

“Anyway, I wasn’t sure what Jaemin meant until I saw your boner for Renjun from fifteen feet away.” 

Donghyuck reflexively covers his crotch and looks down to see if he really is sporting a hard on in the same room that housed what are now considered national treasures. Donghyuck has enough self-assurance, but he is _not_ unbothered enough to be caught publicly lusting over his — rival? Friend? Whatever Renjun was in the complicated web of his life now? 

Upon realizing that Ten was only messing with him, Donghyuck wastes no second retaliating by slapping the older’s arm. “Hyung!” Oh, such insight, such solid, bulletproof defense.

However, contrary to the barrage of teasing Ten would usually follow after with, he says plainly and simply, “You like Renjun,” as if he’d known all along. 

Donghyuck opens his mouth to counter him, but there really was no point in attempting concealment; Ten already sees right through him. 

“Well,” Ten clasps a terrifyingly steady hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder. “It’s about damn time.” 

  
  


—

_Donghyuck slams the door to his room as loud as his little body would allow. There’s a knock to his door not a minute later._

_“Hyuckie.” The door creaks open. Donghyuck’s back is turned away from the door, but he’s sure it’s Doyoung’s voice. “Hyuckie, what’s the matter, bub?”_

_“Renjunnie.” Donghyuck says in between sniffs._

_“Oh, the new kid?” His brother rubs comforting circles with the palm of his hand around Donghyuck’s back. His voice is softer than usual. “Didn’t you say you want to be friends with him?”_

_“Yes,” Donghyuck confirms, which makes him cry even harder. “But not anymore.”_

_“Can I ask why?”_

_Donghyuck springs up, heart heavy and nose leaking, “Just ‘cause!”_

_Doyoung, ever patient, goes on, “I thought you wanted to sing with him?”_

_“I do - I did. B-but Xiaojun asked him before I could, and now they’re best friends, and everybody loves hearing them sing and I - I don’t want to be friends with him anymore, okay!”_

_—_

  
  


After one more glass of champagne and an unsettling introduction to what Ten dubs The Night He Found Nirvana (not the band) In The Backseat, Donghyuck finally finds the courage to make his presence known to Renjun. 

Wedged between a boisterous, old couple, Renjun immediately lights up as soon as he makes eye contact with Donghyuck. Donghyuck dismisses the spark he sees as merely a call for help (which, luckily for Donghyuck, comes in the form of Ten), and not that he’s had the profound epiphany that he has the hots for Donghyuck as well, no matter how much his delusional heart wants him to believe it. 

For someone who escaped a cruise ship full of them, Ten easily whisks the pair away, smiling at whatever the grandmother said, before mumbling, _You owe me, loverboy._

“So you came,” Renjun regards him finally, eyes sweeping Donghyuck’s outfit from head to toe. “And you’re not in ripped jeans.” 

Up close, Renjun look even more glorious. He’s practically glowing. His brunette hair is perfectly styled down in that _I-care-but-not-that-much_ messy way, and his gold thin-rimmed glasses sit perfectly on his perfect nose. Gone was the Renjun from years ago who watched raindrops fall with him (and Jaemin and Jeno) in their cabin during summer camp, nose pressed flat and sour morning breath fogging up the glass. Though, foolishly, Donghyuck misses seeing Renjun’s snaggletooth. 

“Good eye,” Donghyuck squares his shoulders in an attempt to not look as out-of-place as he feels. “Jaemin said you asked what time I’d pass by.” Which is the truth. Donghyuck almost passed out from forgetting to breathe upon hearing it. 

“Jaemin says a lot of things.” Which is also true. But the way the corner of Renjun’s lips turn upward means Jaemin wasn’t lying. 

Renjun pulls him by the arm away from his piece, which looks even more impressive up close, in favor of a corner similar to where Donghyuck stood minutes ago for an hour. “Jeno told me you cancelled the committee meeting yesterday,” Renjun purses his lips suddenly, the same automatic shift Donghyuck sees when they switch from friend/rival/whatever they are to co-presidents. Serious business. 

“Only because you couldn’t make it,” Donghyuck reasons. “I mean, as co-president of the Theatre Society, you should’ve been there.” Donghyuck’s tone is needlessly accusatory out of habit, which he regrets immediately. 

“ _Hey_.” Equal parts guilt and menace cross Renjun’s expression. He whisper-shouts, “You were the one who pushed me to submit my portfolio for the exhibit! And I already told the team weeks in advance that I’d—“

“Chill, Junnie, sorry. That’s not what I meant.” Donghyuck stops himself short of sighing, afraid that it would come across as exasperation. If anything, he’s only frustrated with himself. “Only the meeting was cancelled, but rehearsals went smoothly,” Donghyuck says with the cheeriest tone he could muster without coming across as ingenuine. “Jisung _finally_ memorized all his lines, and Xuxi doesn’t laugh mid-sentence anymore. Hendery’s still working on the last sequence, but it’s all coming along well.” 

“Good,” Renjun nods, brows still scrunched together. Donghyuck wills every fiber of his being to stop himself from smoothing the crease with his thumb and ridding Renjun of all his worries. “But the final song — you should’ve let them hear it. For feedback.” 

“I could’ve. But we’re meant to sing it together. Wouldn’t have made sense if I was there and you weren’t, dummy. It’s a duet, for crying out loud.” 

“Yeah, but Chenle has heard bits of it. He could’ve filled in—“ 

“B-but it wouldn’t feel right,” Donghyuck admits no matter how cheesy it may sound. Renjun’s features visibly soften, though. Oh, _fuck it._ Donghyuck might as well go all the way. “I mean—it’s _our_ song. Our brainchild. I just thought…” 

“Okay. Yeah, I get it. Thanks. I’ve just been“—Renjun gestures around himself, to nothing in particular—“a little out of sorts. This turned out to be more stressful than I thought it’d be.” 

“No one has tried to gouge their eyes out from looking at your painting, so I guess, you did well.” 

“Is that a compliment?” 

“It is.” _Be sincere_. “You worked hard for this, and you deserve to have people gushing over it. Gushing over you.” Oh, _god._ Too cheesy, too cheesy, too cheesy. “M&M?” 

Renjun raises an eyebrow at him, eerily similar to the way Ten did just minutes ago, but doesn’t question his sincerity. He opens his palm to accep the chocolate. “Thanks. That means a lot. Coming from you.” 

“So,” Donghyuck breaks eye contact first, _bless his heart_ , and turns to the crowd, “Want to grab dinner after this? There’s this new restaurant Jaemin told me about just a few minutes from here and if—“ 

“Are you asking me out on a date?” 

Donghyuck almost chokes on his own spit. _Charming_ . “A _date—_ what?! No!” 

“Sounded like a date invitation to me,” Renjun shrugs, pretends to take a sip of his champagne. 

“You’re” _—cough—_ “delusional.” It’s suddenly so fucking hot. Did someone turn the heater on? “So?”

Renjun’s attention is temporarily drawn by a toddler (Donghyuck doesn’t notice how adorable the boy is because he’s currently preoccupied i.e. shitting his pants) stumbling by, so it takes all of eternity for him to answer, “What do you mean ‘so’?” 

“God, you’re impossible.” 

“ _You’re_ the one who’s blabbering like an idiot here.” 

“I meant—“ Deep exhale. You got this, Donghyuck. “So, do you want to check out the place after this?” 

“Okay, let me be clear,” Renjun hands his empty glass to a passing waiter and fluidly takes another. “You want us to check out the restaurant _platonically_?” 

It’s a talent, really, how Renjun can make Donghyuck’s stomach flip and blood boil simultaneously and effortlessly. “It’s a yes or no question, Jun.” Donghyuck tilts his head to the side, a move he learned from Jeno. “Why do you have to make everything so challenging?” 

“Only because you make everything so confusing,” Renjun shoots back. “But okay.” 

“M’kay,” Donghyuck clicks his tongue, feigning nonchalance. As if his heart isn't running at the speed of light. As if he isn’t worried that he might _actually_ be sporting a hard on now. “Cool.” 

“Cool.” 

“Out of curiosity, though,” Donghyuck folds his arms across his chest, not quite sure how he wants Renjun to answer the question on the tip of his tongue. “If I, uh, I… If… you...” 

“If you what? Come on, you big blubbering baby, spit it out. I don’t have all day.” Renjun presses, but the way his words are chased by a laugh tells Donghyuck that Renjun’s just genuinely curious. 

Donghyuck has half a mind to run away, but his own curiosity’s taken the best of him and if he wants _this_ to go anywhere, then he needs to gauge Renjun’s reaction now before it’s too late. 

“If I _did_ ask you out on a date—which I _didn’t—_ would you have said yes?” 

“Hypothetically?” Renjun inquire, a smug smile on his lips. “Probably maybe.” 

_Hypothetically, probably maybe._

Donghyuck could live with that. For now, at least. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> kudos, comments make my heart swell! <3


End file.
